


Mirror, Mirror...

by Lavanya_Six



Category: Worm - Wildbow
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Mirror Universe, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-27
Updated: 2015-02-27
Packaged: 2018-03-15 12:44:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3447686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavanya_Six/pseuds/Lavanya_Six
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Supervillain AU. Victoria finds her boyfriend cleaning his secret lair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirror, Mirror...

The loft reeks. Pungent lemon veils sinus-clearing chemicals, and Victoria starts breathing through her mouth almost on reflex. Everything is frantically tidy. Forced. Her house isn't that big, it's dumb for villains to flaunt their wealth where Uncle Sam can see, yet even with just four people living together clutter has a way of getting away from you sometimes. The Undersiders live five to a loft, with their tinker's workshop downstairs. 

No one is home, save Dean. 

He waves at her from the kitchen.

She stops to float up to a skylight, and cracks it open. Rust is nothing against brute strength. Fortifying herself with fresh air, she drifts down to her boyfriend's side. "Spring cleaning?"

Dean smiles. The late afternoon sun plays in his short blond curls, and there's a ruddiness to his cheeks that she knows better than to point out. Clad up to his elbows in yellow rubber gloves, he's scrubbing out a sink with a brillo pad. "Nah. We've got a recruit coming by."

Victoria raises her eyebrows. It's rare that they get the chance to have the loft to themselves, but if company is coming over... "Should I go?" Her mom likes Dean, but she's never approved of them unmasking to each other. The other Undersiders are cool about not asking too many questions about her slumming clothes and wearing sunglasses indoors, but it's mere politeness. Plus, mixing business with pleasure isn't done—according to her mom and Aunt Sarah, anyway.

"Carlos or Chris will text ahead if it goes well."

"If you say so." She hops up onto the countertop. For once, she can trust it isn't gross. Four boys in one apartment can be dicey on the hygiene front. "How was school?"

"Didn't go, actually. We've been on high alert with the ABB and everything."

"I heard." She lightly socks him in the shoulder. "Fighting Lung, and you don't cut me a piece of that action? You know what I was doing last night? Sleeping when I could have been kicking ass."

"I'll make it up to you." But not by calling in the future, because he won't make her choose between him and the family business. She can't help but sigh. "Cabin fever?"

"Yeah. Bored." Dean says nothing. She glances at him, but finds him staring intently at her jeans. Specifically, some flecks of dark red. 

"Is that...?"

"Yeah. It's blood."

He grips the lip of the sink with both hands, and bows his head. "Vicky—"

"Oh, spare me! I got enough of it from Ames!"

Dean is silent for a long time. Once or twice, he starts to ease up, apparently to speak, but finally he just spits out, "Please tell me you didn't play superhero again."

"Well, superheroes don't kick the shit out of Nazis that hard, so I guess I didn't." 

Dean groans. 

"Relax," she says, beaming at him.

"Your aura doesn't work on me."

"Ames says the same thing."

"Amy says and does whatever makes you happy, because you're family."

She cranks up her aura to extra strength. As if to prove his point, Dean Stansfield, dime store Heartbreaker, doesn't react at all. Stupid boyfriend and his stupid secondary powers. Victoria settles for snapping, "Fuck you."

He ignores her for the sake of scrubbing the sink, harder and more energetically than before. "What were you doing, picking on the Eighty-Eights?"

Amy hadn't bought her line about information gathering, so she cops to the truth. "He beat up some black woman on campus. So I thought, hey, hunting season. Work off stress from being cooped up all day with my tutors. Because if there's one nice thing about _fighting_ crime is that nobody is terribly picky about how you do it. That he was one of Kaiser's goons was a bonus."

"Christ."

"Relax. I had Amy heal him up. No evidence beyond some torn clothes."

"Well, that's something. I just hope nobody saw either of you, or... well." There'll be hell to pay between the Empire and the Brigade, especially with the bad blood already existing between them. Or so Ames claimed in the alleyway. Victoria thinks differently. 

"It was just some asshole. Not even a cape. Low-level pissing matches happen all the time. I mean, it's not like I, oh, robbed one of the ABB's casinos."

"That," Dean says, tugging off his rubber gloves, "was about rep."

"It was dumb. And according to my mom, I'm an expert on that." Because it isn't like she would be on honor roll if they still let her attend school, always-on aura or not. You break one of Myrddin's limbs during a job and suddenly you're a loose cannon. 

Dean's phone chirps. 

"Carlos?" she asks.

"Missy. Bug Girl is a go."

"Seriously? You let Missy go?" 

He pockets his cell. "She gets a vote. It's her team too."

_That must be nice,_ she thinks.

Victoria slips off the countertop. "That's my cue, then."

Dean grabs her by the wrist. "Stay."

"And what? Clark Kent it in front of the new girl? _Gosh, who is this mysterious yet busty damsel? Rune or the only other teenage blonde villainess in the city? It must be Rune!"_

He slips an arm around her waist. "Nah. I was thinking... you're my groupie."

She laughs. "Don't flatter yourself, smalltimer."

"It'll be fun. Dennis is grabbing take-out. We'll all hang out."

"Team bonding? I'm not on your team."

"No, you're the adoring fangirl who polishes my power armor."

"Like a dog with a bone." Victoria shakes her head, but it does sound nice. Just hanging out with kids her own age for once. It's been years. Since her trigger, really. But... "My aura—"

"Newbie won't notice. A half-dozen capes in the room? She won't be able to pin it down, and you can keep it dialed low."

"Low isn't off."

Dean shrugs. 

Somehow, it's enough to convince her.


End file.
